[adamred]

I'm also with the original poster and finding this facinating. Long story short, I work on the "vendor/agency" side of the pharmaceutical marketing mix and am waiting to hear if my main client contact and now good friend makes the jump to a new company.

If so he has all but guaranteed to put a partner and me in business with our own agency....one of the most low risk ways of opening your own agency in this business....for me this could be the difference between a solid-lower six figure income (plus decent bonus) but handing all of the profits over to the company, the company's holding company and the holding company's holding company or striking out with a partner and keeping the darn profits!
If the stars align properly I could make multiple times my salary and just plain silly end of year dollars, so I have been polling many of my friends and now this site to get their stories, so how timely!
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
Adam